Lessons of History, Continued: From a review of "Werewolf! The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944-1946"

What did the Werwolf do? They sniped. They mined roads. They poured sand into the gas tanks of jeeps. (Sugar was in short supply, no doubt.) They were especially feared for the "decapitation wires" they strung across roads. They poisoned food stocks and liquor. (The Russians had the biggest problem with this.) They committed arson, though perhaps less than they are credited with: every unexplained fire or explosion associated with a military installation tended to be blamed on the Werwolf. These activities slackened off within a few months of the capitulation on May 7, though incidents were reported as late as 1947.

... Goebbels especially grasped the possibility that guerrilla war could be a political process as well as a military strategy. It was largely through his influence that the Werwolf assumed something of the aspect of a terrorist organization. Where it could, it tried to prevent individuals and communities from surrendering, and it assassinated civil officials who cooperated with the Allies. Few Germans welcomed these activities, but something else that Goebbels grasped was that terror might serve where popularity was absent. By his estimate, only 10% to 15% of the German population were potential supporters for a truly revolutionary movement. His goal was to use the Werwolf to activate that potential. With the help of the radical elite, the occupiers could be provoked into savage reprisals that would win over the mass of the people to Neo-Nazism, a term that came into use in April 1945.

And from an article on Minutemen of the Third Reich.(history of the Nazi Werewolf guerilla movement) The Werewolves specialised in ambushes and sniping, and took the lives of many Allied and Soviet soldiers and officers -- perhaps even that of the first Soviet commandant of Berlin, General N.E. Berzarin, who was rumoured to have been waylaid in Charlottenburg during an incident in June 1945. Buildings housing Allied and Soviet staffs were favourite targets for Werewolf bombings; an explosion in the Bremen police headquarters, also in June 1945, killed five Americans and thirty-nine Germans. Techniques for harassing the occupiers were given widespread publicity through Werewolf leaflets and radio propaganda, and long after May 1945 the sabotage methods promoted by the Werewolves were still being used against the occupying powers. Although the Werewolves originally limited themselves to guerrilla warfare with the invading armies, they soon began to undertake scorched-earth measures and vigilante actions against German `collaborators' or `defeatists'. They damaged Germany's economic infrastructure, already battered by Allied bombing and ground fighting, and tried to prevent anything of value from falling into enemy hands. Attempts to blow up factories, power plants or waterworks occasionally provoked melees between Werewolves and desperate German workers trying to save the physical basis of their employment, particularly in the Ruhr and Upper Silesia.

Several sprees of vandalism through stocks of art and antiques, stored by the Berlin Museum in a flak tower at Friedrichshain, caused millions of dollars worth of damage and cultural losses of inestimable value. In addition, vigilante attacks caused the deaths of a number of small-town mayors and, in late March 1945, a Werewolf paratroop squad assassinated the Lord Mayor of Aachen, Dr Franz Oppenhoff, probably the most prominent German statesman to have emerged in the occupied fringes over the winter of 1944-45.

The werewolves were mostly Hitler Youth fanatics, I believe, and many of the explosions in the weeks after the war ended were the result of time-delay demolition charges placed by the German army before hostilities ended. They had clockwork detonators with as long as 2 months' delay, similar to those used by the Russians during 1941.

None of this is really comparable to what is happening in Iraq, since contrary to the lies of the RAT lapdog media, most of the attacks on our troops and the iraqui infrastructure are being carried out by outside terrorises and professional criminals paid by the Baath party loyalists with the billions stolen from the "oil for food" debacle.

Thanks.I heard one of the retired generals on Fox this afternoon say that he went into Germany as a boy about 3 years after the war had ended.He said that by then it{terrorist attacks)were just about over.

9
posted on 08/26/2003 8:06:15 PM PDT
by Lady In Blue
(Thou Art Peter And Upon This Rock I Will Build My Church &The Gates Of Hell Shall Not Prevail ..)

I couldn't agree with you more! As one of the retired generals on Fox said today, if these people had been around at the battle of the bulge(sp?)or Normandy they wouldn't have been able to stand it(paraphrasing).Of course they didn't have cable back then,24 hours continuous reporting,he went on to say.

12
posted on 08/26/2003 8:10:27 PM PDT
by Lady In Blue
(Thou Art Peter And Upon This Rock I Will Build My Church &The Gates Of Hell Shall Not Prevail ..)

One Japanese soldier was found on Guam several years after the War. There were several others found before him on Guam. Readers Digest had an article about a Japanese soldier who was watching G.I.s play baseball after the War. He actually threw their baseball back after it was hit into the jungle.

I believe that last Japanese soldier was found in the Phillipine Islands about 35 years after the end of the War. Japan sent a group to the Phillipines to convince him to come out. He returned to Japan but was unable to assimilate back into the culture which had changed so much. He migrated to Brazil I understand.

Predict Greybird will be in here spouting his "Quagmire! Quagmire!" paleobabble sometime in the next 20 minutes...or by 7:30 at his local time if he's already gone to bed. He likes to come into werewolf threads and claim that we're all big liars because we see the historical similarities.

21
posted on 08/26/2003 9:07:57 PM PDT
by Mr. Silverback
("Helen Thomas, I've got a question for you: Just how many cats do you own now?")

Are you actually trying to reason with AWW? Remember, we're talking about a person who, in the post-9/11 worl, doesn't believe that busting up terrorist training camps in Iraq is a legitimate national security interest. Not sure you can let any light into that kind of density.

23
posted on 08/26/2003 9:11:50 PM PDT
by Mr. Silverback
("Helen Thomas, I've got a question for you: Just how many cats do you own now?")

I knew AWW was unreasonable, but didn't know he was quite that out-there. And to think he's a Freeper...

I should have put it another way. It's not that he's explicitly said that we have no business going after the training camps, it's just that he oppsed the Iraq war so vehemently, and nothing, not even Salman Pak has shaken him. Pretty much the same thing, but I wanted to be clear about it.

Do an In Forum on him sometime. It's quite a trip.

37
posted on 08/27/2003 8:02:00 AM PDT
by Mr. Silverback
("Helen Thomas, I've got a question for you: Just how many cats do you own now?")

Hey...you're the one who made the humanitarian argument. I merely asked you a question: Are you, are are you not, for a U.S. occupation of the Congo? I am against the Iraq war (though I supported the Afghan war). I have put my cards on the table. Why can't you answer the question?

Sam - Sure would like to see the source for this. As one who was there, I can't recall a single guy who was shot in the Bavaria, Austria area. Maybe the Russians had this problem. Guys were killed in accidents, Patton included. I also checked my friends who were there. This may all be pure bunk to spin what is happening to our guys in Iraq with our WW II occupation. You are a very good researcher, did you ever find anything?

I can't provide a link or a total for all US forces. I did read that one division lost about 47 men. The Russians also lost people.

I don't understand the need to have exact numbers for casualties. It brings back the Vietnam body count and weekly total of Americans lost reported with glee by the TV Networks.

I think the point of this all, is that after the collapse of a country and it's military, you are still going to have resistance from remnants of the defeated military. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, there was still a guerilla resistance by the ARVN for a number of years in the southern part of the country. It wasn't reported by the media, of course...

You keep wanting a number of American soldiers killed in post-war Germany. I've sent you many links that don't give numbers but rather tell how many ways they killed us. We weren't quite so into statistics in the post-war phase as people are now; same with poll numbers.

Would a high number of American soldiers killed in post-war Germany change your mind? I think not. It's a false argument you are making.

50
posted on 08/27/2003 10:18:39 AM PDT
by Peach
(The Clintons have pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)

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